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In Bollywood films—and even in the recent Aryan Khan series The Ba***ds of Bollywood—we often see stories of children growing up longing for their fathers, raised by mothers who had them out of wedlock. For Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta and legendary West Indies cricketer Vivian Richards, this narrative wasn’t just fictional; it was her reality. Her childhood was shaped by relentless gossip. She longed for a “normal” family, while her hair, skin colour, and body type became subjects of constant scrutiny. But instead of allowing the negativity to define her, Masaba transformed it into creative power.
In 2009, she launched her fashion label, House of Masaba. And in 2022, she reclaimed the label “love child”—a phrase once used against her in gossip columns—by turning it into part of her brand identity.
Today, Masaba Gupta is not only the founder of House of Masaba but also the owner of Lovechild, a beauty brand that, in less than three years, has grown into a Rs 115 crore company—without a single rupee of third-party funding.
But her success came after an arduous journey.
After launching House of Masaba in 2009, Masaba Gupta quickly gained recognition for her distinctive prints and aesthetics. Her style stood apart from the mainstream fashion scene, and she steadily built a loyal following.
In 2020, just as she prepared for her first round of funding, the pandemic struck. Stores shut, sales collapsed, and Masaba was told that House of Masaba might not survive the year. Speaking on Sania Mirza’s podcast Serving It Up with Sania, she recalled: “We raised our first round in 2019 and then 2020 happened… My investors said, ‘The runway you have is about three, four months. After that, there is no money.’ Nobody was putting money into businesses like fashion—it was at the bottom of the food chain.”
She continued: “He said 17 July 2020 will be the last day that House of Masaba exists. I did everything to make sure that didn’t happen. We shut stores, had to lay off many people, and cut our losses. In hindsight, it was the greatest thing that could have happened to me… It made me trust my gut.”
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Speaking to Faye D’Souza, Masaba Gupta described the emotional toll: “Every day from 2 to 5 pm, I’d be on calls being told the brand would shut down—July 10, then July 15, then August. We were negotiating with malls and landlords to reduce rent. We were so bad off that we took back our security deposits. My investors told me to think about wrapping up. They didn’t think it would work in a post-Covid world.”
At one point, Masaba didn’t even have Rs 12,000 to pay her cook. Within two months, she had shuttered five stores.
“I think I had Rs 2 lakh in my bank account. We decided to hold on to that, make masks, and focus on cutting losses.”
Then came an unexpected turning point: Netflix approached her for Masaba Masaba. After the show’s release in August 2020, everything changed.
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“On August 20, it came out, and my sales head called saying, ‘We did a couple of lakhs in sales on the website.’ People started watching the show and discovering the brand. Masaba Masaba saved me at a time when I didn’t know what else to do. A year later, things stabilised—I didn’t have to shut my label.”
Masaba Gupta bounced back stronger than ever. In 2022, she launched Lovechild.
On the brand’s website, she writes:
“LoveChild as a term has been woven into my destiny since I was born… I thought it was time to redefine the word and craft it into a brand for rebels like me who challenge the status quo. LoveChild is my attempt to reclaim the overwhelming beauty narrative, challenging norms and simplifying it for us all.”
Lovechild focuses on makeup, fragrances, and body care. In less than three years, it reported annual revenue of Rs 116 crore as of March 31, 2025, and employed 201 people as of August 31, 2025. The brand ranked 49th among 828 competitors in the market—an extraordinary feat for such a young company.
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In the same year, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd. (ABFRL) acquired a 51% stake in the company for Rs 90 crore, with the goal of scaling it to Rs 500 crore in revenue within five years. Since the acquisition, the brand’s performance has surged—growing fivefold and targeting a net annual recurring revenue (ARR) of Rs 150 crore in 2024.
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